In the 20th year (1360), Zheng Zheng was hired by Zhu Yuanzhang together with Liu Ji, Zhang Yi and Ye Chen, and was honored as the teacher of the Five Classics. Hong majored in Yuan history, and the official to the bachelor accepted the imperial edict. Later, due to Hu's case, he died in Maozhou. There are The Complete Works of Song Dynasty, The New Filial Piety, etc.
In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor, and Song Lian became a Confucian teacher in Jiangnan, giving lectures to the Prince. In the second year of Hongwu (1369), he was ordered to major in Yuan history. Tired officials went to the academician courtyard to start a business, knowing the patent. Hongwu ten years (1377), resigned and returned home. Later, because the eldest grandson was involved in the Hu Dang case, the whole family was exiled to Maozhou (now Sichuan Qiang Autonomous County) and died on the way in Kuizhou (now fengjie county, Chongqing).
In the history of ancient literature in China, Song Lian, Liu Ji and Gao Qi were called the great poets in the third day of Ming Dynasty. He took it as his duty to inherit the feudal Confucian orthodoxy, and advocated "learning from the classics" and "learning from the ancients" of the characters and learning from the Tang and Song Dynasties. His works are very rich. His works, represented by biographical sketches and narrative essays, are concise, elegant and graceful, with their own characteristics. When the Ming Dynasty was founded, most of the imperial rites and music systems were formulated by Song Lian. Zhu Yuanzhang called him "the first civil servant in the founding of the People's Republic of China", Liu Ji praised him as "the first article today" and scholars from all directions called him "Tai Shigong". Author of Selected Works of Song Shi Xue.
Song Lian is "the head of the founding civil servants". He insisted that Ming Dow's prose should seek truth from facts, draw lessons from classics, emphasize "expressing ambition", pay attention to "changing things" and demand "feeling things with things", so his prose is rich in content and has certain artistic skills.
In the next generation, Song Lian is the first person to open a private library.
Song Lian's collection of books began as a teenager. At that time, he moved to Pujiang because of the war at the end of Yuan Dynasty, and built a room to study in Luo Qing Mountain, because its building was named "Luo Qing Mountain House". After the mutiny, the official books were seriously damaged, and Song Lian was able to keep the book city because of his seclusion in the mountains. Qi Ming Han Cheng's "Red Book Collection of Lianshengtang" said: "After the country broke the fire and died, Song Wenxian publicly studied in Luoqingshan, and has collected thousands of books." The Preface to the Complete Works of Song Wenxian, the second volume of the Collected Works of Fengxitang in the Qing Dynasty, said that Song Lian "began to sneak into Pujiang, gained his book wealth, and pushed Song Lian first".
The essence of Song Lian's books, a few of which flowed into the hands of Qing people. For example, The Collection of Changqing in the Northern Song Dynasty was successively collected by Qian Ceng, Huang Pilie and Pan Zuyin. "Bai Fu": "The" Changqing "of Lushan Mountain, see Liuding; Master Jinhua is an elf alone. " Note: Changqing Ji was engraved in the Northern Song Dynasty, so-called' Lushan Edition'. Geng Yin was burned and the seeds were cut. Only this little song book in Jinhua Song's "Jinglian" is full of pictures, ancient and lovely, and rare. In addition, a batch of biographies of Spring and Autumn Annals, Historical Records and Song Wenxuan flowed into the palace of the Qing Dynasty, recording the sequel of Tianlu Lin Lang. Song Lian also collected the Song Dynasty publication "Shilin Guangji", and then returned to Ding Richang, Guangdong Province, where he recorded the Bibliography of Bao Jing Zhai.
The orthodox view of literature has a long history, but there are also differences here: the ancient writers in Tang and Song Dynasties, represented by Han Yu and Ouyang Xiu, advocated that "literature should be based on Ming Dow" in theory, emphasizing the instrumentality of literature, but not belittling it; Neo-Confucianism in Song Dynasty saw their incompleteness, so it put forward the argument of "the unity of literature and Taoism" and even "literature harms Taoism" to prevent literati from being tempted by literature outside Taoism. Song Lian's literary thought followed the extreme viewpoint of Neo-Confucianism. In Wen Yuan, he emphasized that writing "does not refer exclusively to rhetorical writing", and that the image of Tao is the representation, and the text is consistent with Tao, where Tao is, the text is also there. In other articles, Song Lian has repeatedly put forward that "standing without a road, filling without a road, and walking without a road" (preface to Baiyun Draft); "There is no Tao outside the text, and there is no text outside the Tao" (preface to Professor Xu's Collected Works).
Criticizing ancient writers with this theory shows a very narrow attitude. For example, in the Preface to the Collected Works of Professor Xu, Song Lian openly proposed that after the death of Mencius, "there will be no literature in the world"; Jia Yi and Sima Qian only got "skin", while Han Yu and Ouyang Xiu only got "bone". Only a few great scholars in the Song Dynasty "won their hearts" can be regarded as "the writings of the Six Classics". As for all kinds of articles that obviously don't meet the standard of "gentleness and gentleness", in Song Lian's view, they are even more "non-literature".
The theory of "the unity of literature and Taoism" is an officially supported position, which can be proved by the style of Yuan Shi. Since Ye Fan's Book of the Later Han Dynasty, two biographies, The Scholars and Wen Yuan, have been separated to distinguish the scholars from the writers, and the history of repairing officials in later generations has been inherited. However, the History of Yuan Dynasty abolished this distinction and set up a separate History of the Scholars, arguing that "scripture cannot be divided into two" and that "literature does not originate from the six arts, but is all words!" Yuan Shi was written at Zhu Yuanzhang's instigation, which certainly catered to his meaning. With the official support of the imperial court, this theory will inevitably bring disastrous consequences to the development of literature.
Song Lian's collected works are full of works that beautify, eulogize the elites of the ruling group in the early Ming Dynasty and praise chastity women, which is probably the concentrated expression of his "orthodox" literature. But the progress that history has made, that is, it is still difficult to reverse it by force. Therefore, even in Song Lian, there are two sides.
Song Lian had a close friendship with Yang Weizhen in the late Yuan Dynasty. After Yang died in the early Ming Dynasty, he wrote an epitaph for him, praised Yang's literary talent and achievements, and even described his "broad-minded" and "worldly-playing" life mode in a rather tolerant tone, which was quite incompatible with his rigorous theory. In addition, he also has some essays, which respect the reality of life, so he is closer to the real human nature while promoting some moral concepts. For example, Biography of Wang Mian describes the mental outlook of a "madman" at the end of Yuan Dynasty, and the paragraph describing the reading situation of young people in Wang Mian at the beginning is quite interesting:
Wang Mian is from Zhuji. When I was seven or eight years old, my father ordered me to herd cattle, steal into the school house and listen to the students' endorsements. Listen to yourself and learn from your memory. Come back at dusk and forget about its cow. It's as good as ever to take Niu Guaitian and make my father angry. Mother said, "My son is so stupid that he doesn't listen to anything?" Because the crown is gone, I live by the monk temple. Sneak out at night, sit on the Buddha's lap and read with the ever-burning lamp. There are many clay dolls in the Buddha statue, which are hideous and creepy. Guaner, if you don't see it.
Another example is Lu Pizi's Epitaph, which introduces in detail Chen Qiao's ideological achievement of "transmitting sound by screen and taking classics as one's own". Zhu Xi's Biography of Yimin is well written because the author can take a sympathetic attitude towards different personalities. The preface to seeing Ma Sheng off in Dongyang describes the hardships of studying in poverty in the early years, and it is also very real and touching.
Song Lian's prose is concise and elegant, with few embellishments. But occasionally some descriptive fragments can be written quite beautifully. Various styles often have their own characteristics, which shows that changes are not so rigid. Generally speaking, his writing style is close to moral norms, and he has high language accomplishment and skillful skills, so he can be a model of literary fashion in the early Ming Dynasty.
Sadly for Song Lian, Zhu Yuanzhang did not admit that he was a "great scholar" at all, but called him a "scholar" in an insulting tone (see Biography of Gui Yanliang in Ming Dynasty). Because in Zhu Yuanzhang's political system, there can be no more "great Confucianism"-the ideological director of society, and the emperor himself is the ideological director. Song Lian died innocently in the end, which also reflected the harshness of politics in the early Ming Dynasty.
Song Lian was the main designer of cultural regulation in Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Yuanzhang called him "the head of the founding civil servants" (Biography of Ming History). When I was young, I studied in the county, learned three biographies of Spring and Autumn Annals, studied under Wu Lai, a philosopher and ancient prose writer in eastern Zhejiang, and studied under Liu Guan, Huang Cheng and Zheng Fuchu. He studied under Zhu, He Ji, Jin Luxiang and Xu Qian, and he himself is interested in inheriting Wu Xue from Donglai. In Song Lian, there are two kinds of cultural personalities: the Neo-Confucianism and the litterateur. His literary thought follows Hao Jing, Liu Jiangsun and Seo Woo, and advocates the trinity of heaven, events and literature. His literary ontology continues the concept of "the unity of literature and Taoism" in Neo-Confucianism, which is manifested in the compilation of the History of Yuan Dynasty, that is, the integration of Confucian scholars and liberal arts. In Wen Yuan, he not only emphasized that the text is the manifestation of Tao, but also divided it into Tao-carrying text and chronicle. He believes that "the chronicle should be Sima Qian and Ban Gu, and the words contain Tao. How can I keep up without six books? " Judging ancient writers by the Six Classics sometimes shows a narrow attitude. For example, in the Preface to the Collected Works of Professor Xu, Song Lian openly put forward: "My husband died of Mencius, and there is no literature in the world. Jia Changsha, Dong Jiangdu and Taishi moved their skins, Han Libu and Ouyang got their bones, and the five masters of Fuling, Henan, Hengqu and Kaoting got their hearts. " Looking at the works of five masters is fascinating and fascinating, and you will never be confused until you reach the saints. Sven also, non-Song also, Tang Yu three generations of literature also; Tang Yu's writings are not three generations, but also six classics. "This is obviously from the standpoint of Neo-Confucianism, and consciously cooperates with Zhu Yuanzhang's cultural policy of" respecting Song Confucianism alone ".
Song Lian's literary creation can be divided into two stages, one is to escape from troubled times, and the other is to praise seclusion. In the later period, he wrote a large number of temple books and inscriptions on the great ancestor Daqing, which were highly praised by colleagues and scholars from all over the world. Although his temple literature shows the enterprising spirit of Confucianism, many articles are for entertainment and praise of saints, and the form of Li Hongdian covers up the embarrassment of internal vitality.
Song Lian is the founder of "Taige Style" literature, and he initiated the theory of "Taige Style" in literary theory. In Preface to Wang Youcheng's Poems, the article is divided into two schools: Tiger and Linshan, among which the intention of respecting Tiger and belittling Linshan is very obvious. Song Lian's graceful and quiet temple articles also provide a creative model for Taige Style. For example, Reading the River in Lou Ji, based on the purport of understanding the sacred meaning, imagines all kinds of reverie of the Emperor ascending the building, and praises Zhu Yuanzhang's "thinking of governing the country". Later, Sanyang's Tiger article was derived from such an article.
The article that truly shows Song Lian's literary talent and creative spirit is not his temple essays, but his biographical essays with free selection of materials and free feelings. His representative works include stories of Puyang, biographies of sages in five continents and other legendary biographies describing historical celebrities in Puyang. These biographies can grasp the characteristics and details of the characters, and use the methods of comparison and contrast to highlight the personalities of the characters. The disadvantage is that they are sometimes a bit redundant. For example, The Legend of the White Bull is Song Lian's autobiography, and the author writes vividly for himself, revealing his mental outlook:
Bai Niu was born in Qianxi, Jinhua, and his surname is unknown. He tried to ride a white cow to and from the stream, so he gave birth to a white cow. Life is short and details are scarce. Hard-working, addicted to everything, but not lazy about attack and study. He keeps his mind, writes books and talks with people. Or tired of its complexity, he said, "I don't want to learn this, but I can learn from it." If you don't have one day, you will walk at night. "
Biography of Wang Mian describes a "madman", a visionary wizard and a Zhuge Liang-style hermit at the end of Yuan Dynasty. It can be said that Wang Mian's self-description of Song Lian is also an overlay. At the beginning, a section about Wang Mian teenagers' reading vividly shows Wang Mian's unusual studious spirit:
Wang Mian is from Zhuji. When I was seven or eight years old, my father ordered me to herd cattle, steal into the school house and listen to the students' endorsements. Listen to yourself and learn from your memory. Come back at dusk and forget about its cow. It's as good as ever to take Niu Guaitian and make my father angry. Mother said, "My son is so stupid that he doesn't listen to anything?" Because the crown is gone, I live by the monk temple. Sneak out at night, sit on the Buddha's lap and read with the ever-burning lamp. There are many clay dolls in the Buddha statue, which are hideous and creepy. Guaner, if you don't see it.
The Biography of Wang Mian is known for its strangeness, which highlights the intellectuals' indifference to fame and fortune in feudal times.
Song Lian's various practical writings often have their own characteristics, which have broken through the scope of inscriptions, postscript and chapters. For example, the story of Shushutang, the story of Guangji Bridge in Tiantai, and the story of Yidu in Jinxi County. Recording experience, stressing practice, technical measures and management means are quite newsworthy. His preface is concise, making the past serve the present, and his language skills are skillful, which is a model of literary fashion in the early Ming Dynasty. For example, "Preface to Peach Blossom Creek" wrote that my friends and I visited the Peach Blossom Creek on March 3rd, and I repaired it on the river bank. The expressions are rich and concise, and the structure of the article is clear and natural. His preface to seeing Ma Sheng off to Yang describes his early schooling experience, which is clear and instructive.